June 17th, 2009
So far, 10 universities are participating in LED University pilot programs on their campuses, and several more are interested. Not bad for a program that’s just over a year old (it began in April, 2008). Lovig receives calls and emails from other entities eager for information on nearly a daily basis.
At North Carolina State University, the guinea pigs go all the way to the top. Projects there include lighting in the chancellor’s office (see photo, left), a student dormitory, and campus parking garages. Before and after pictures of one of the parking garages shows a marked difference in both the brightness and the color of the illumination
“Students are very excited about it,” said Lovig. Not only do they say they feel safer on campus at night, “they want the better quality light. They say “When is my dorm room going to be converted?”
NC State’s bottom line: The university expects to achieve a total energy savings of 66%.
That’s not just in the cost of light bulbs, rather a “total cost of ownership” number, which includes the bulbs, the ballasts, the fixtures, how much the electricity itself costs, and how much it takes to maintain the electrical facilities over time.
“That’s part of what we are helping cities and universities do,” Lovig said. “We are very dedicated to developing a business case for moving to LED lighting. The interesting thing about universities that we didn’t know when we started is that they are far more interested in energy savings right now. It’s one of the primary drivers for them. Sustainability is very important to their student population.”
The University of Arkansas is saving up to $800 a month since installing LED lights just in the chancellor’s residence alone, and are moving ahead aggressively on other projects, Lovig said. Notre Dame notes an 81% energy savings from using LED technology in the elevator lobby of Hesburgh Library, which is illuminated 24 hours a day; the university also has installed outdoor LEDs (see photo, right).
Marquette University, the University of Miami, Madison Area Technical College, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Alaska at Anchorage also participate. At Tianjin Polytechnic University in China, 20 graduate students designed, produced and installed LED streetlights along 15 kilometers of the university’s streets.
A recent story in the New York Times highlighted both the sustainability and the cost savings of LED technology. “Studies suggest that a complete conversion to the lights could decrease carbon dioxide emissions from electric power use for lighting by up to 50 percent in just over 20 years,” the article reported. “A recent report by McKinsey & Company cited conversion to LED lighting as potentially the most cost-effective of a number of simple approaches to tackling global warming using existing technologies.”
So why hasn’t there been a similar movement in the residential market? Supply has been limited, quality has been inconsistent, and demand has so far been small. That may change this summer and fall, when some behemoth companies like Sylvania, Philips and General Electric introduce more residential LED bulbs. The recent Lightfair International tradeshow in New York featured LED lights appropriate for kitchens, chandeliers and lamps.
There’s still a question of upfront cost, however. The estimated cost of the Philips light bulb is between $50 and $70 per bulb, which is tough to swallow when the country’s in a recession and conventional lightbulbs can be had for a fraction of that. Compact fluorescent bulbs now cost $5-$10 each, and adoption of CFL bulbs was slow-going at first, too. Consumers looked at the strange, swirly bulbs and their higher price tags and often opted for the familiar instead.
“A homeowner traditionally doesn’t go to a store to buy alight source to save energy,” said Siminovitch. Rather, they are purchasing an amenity – a bulb that provides a certain style, a certain shape, a certain area of light, at a certain cost. They may be interested in energy savings, but they aren’t spending time on the end-game math.
“For the people I work with at the university, it’s an educated decision – providing a lamp to provide a certain quality of life,” he said. “I just finished a meeting, we sat down with lighting manuals and cost calculators. (We) can say look, four years from now we’ll be cost-neutral on this.
“Homeowners don’t do that. I think we need to help.”
The evangelist agrees. She believes shared knowledge is as important as progressive technology.
“A community like this trades information very quickly,” Lovig said. She said most of the members of the group have met at one point or another; they email and share information and expertise freely. “The purpose of our program is to accelerate the adoption of LED lights, and the way we do that is to help them venture into this new lighting technology, help them find fixtures that will work for their particular installation, and help them capture all the concrete benefits.
“This is a rather significant paradigm shift and they really would like to benefit from the experience of others who have gone before them.”
Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media
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